Awesome: Caterer for Obama Event Wears Romney Shirt

Kate Hicks

8/15/2012 9:12:00 PM - Kate Hicks

Ross Murty built his business, and he wanted President Obama to know. So he wore this shirt while catering an event for the president:

Wearing a Romney shirt to a job for Obama? That takes some guts!

“No one from the government was there when we were sweating it, when we were building this business,” Murty said. Before him was a bank of chafing dishes filled with smoked beef brisket, pulled pork, vegetable parmesan bake and cheesy hash brown casserole provided to the White House press corps covering the president’s three-day swing across Iowa this week.

Murty, 45, a registered Republican, didn’t really have a choice with the catering job. His partner, Bret Dalton (a registered Democrat), accepted the work on Saturday while Murty was away in Chicago watching a Cubs game. Dalton volunteered for Vice President Biden’s presidential campaign in 1988, when he was a student at Iowa State University.

But that’s not why he got the contract.

“One of Obama’s lead people came into the deli Saturday morning,” Dalton said. “I didn’t even know it was for Obama until that night.”

When he found out, though, Dalton had some fun. He called up Murty, who was driving back from Chicago, and asked: “Guess who’s coming to town this week?”

“He was a little stunned,” Dalton recalled. But the two take their political disagreements in stride, and the conversation was all in good fun, both said.

“I would never say no to anybody for any reason,” Murty said. “My partner and I have different views in politics, but business is business.”